Pauline Gola

In The Deep

“In The Deep” explores water’s ability to distort light and form. I’m creating a personal language in these liquid aberrations, allowing me to express emotions and experiences through gesture, light, and movement. In particular, I’m fascinated metaphorically with the lack of control people have underwater and how a simple ripple in the surface mangles our view of the world above.

I hope that by capturing these split-second moments in a foreign and typically unseen environment, I can shine a light on unheard and complex realities. The photographs reveal inner truths that are best articulated through the distortion of time, space, and the physical self, exposing what it might look like if our internal struggles were external gestures.

Artist Bio:

Although I spent my formative adult years living in New York City, much of my life has been in a state far from that of urban dwellings. I lived in a state of submersion, finding reprieve in the water. Born and raised in Southern California, as a child I was a competitive swimmer and later plunged deeper and became a rescue-certified SCUBA diver.

I received my B.S. from University of Southern California’s School of Music and spent the subsequent years immersed in DJing on two turntables in clubs small and large, sophisticated and unsophisticated, around the U.S. Eventually I moved into marketing for an online music startup in SoHo, where I pursued design.

After returning to Los Angeles, where I now reside, my desire to explore underwater worlds led me to photography. Today, I am a commercial and fine art photographer, much of that work created beneath the liquid surface. Some may think I am part mermaid and I’m not telling them otherwise.